The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon (Review)

“Not all of us know what we are. Some of us die without ever knowing. Some of us know, and never get caught. But we’re out there. Trust me.”

I received this free from the publishers via NetGalley

Wow. This has got to be one of the best books I have read this year.

The Bone Season is set in the year 2059. Paige Mahoney is a clairvoyant, a rare one, as she is a dreamwalker. She can enter people’s minds, their dreamscapes. She works for Jaxon Hall in the criminal underworld of Scion London. Paige lives in a world where her kind his hunted and killed. One day she is hunted, kidnapped and drugged and sent to the city of Oxford. A city many people thought was lost. Oxford is controlled by a powerful race – Rephaite – who have come from the Netherworld. They see voyants as their soldiers and slaves. Warden has laid claim to Paige. He is her Keeper, her master, he trains and cares for her. He is her enemy. Paige wants her freedom and she is willing to do almost anything to get it, even willing to try and understand her mysterious Keeper.

The Bone season is a mix between Dystopia and Fantasy. Samantha Shannon has re-written the past to suit her story, and I think she did a brilliant job of it. There is some fantastic world-building involved. I was slightly confused at the start, but Shannon does a wonderful job in blending in all these aspect of this world together. I really loved the use of Rephaite, it is a part of biblical mythology which I have never read about. The Bone Season was a very intriguing and well thought out story which held my attention from the first page.

Paige was a character which I deeply admired. She was such a well written, and well rounded character. She was strong, but not fearless, but she was brave. She had vulnerabilities and weaknesses. She feared herself and what she could do, yet liked it. She found it hard to trust, but eventually trusted those she never thought she could. There was some great character development on her part. But also on Wardens part. He was a very interesting character to begin with. He was shrouded in secrets, and I was unsure whose side he was on at the start, but he had other motives. I really enjoyed the development of his character, and his relationship with Paige. It wasn’t too rushed, and I am intrigued by their connection. I also like that Paige isn’t a damsel in distress, but is aware that she sometimes needs help. She doesn’t wait around for Warden to come and save her and she knows, and so does he, that she needs to do some thing on her own and that she can handle herself. Bravo to Samantha Shannon for creating such compelling characters. Not just the heroes, but the villains.

The Bone Season is full of action and suspense and it certainly deserves all the hype it is getting. I suggest that anyone reading this, unsure about this book, should go out right now and pick it up. If you are a fan of Dystopia and Fantasy then I wouldn’t miss out on this one.